Spring comes to the Ghetto

Of course spring always arrives with a certain amount of litter revealed by the retreating snow — but this was far worse than the leftovers of a long winter. It was as if the garbage truck had passed and its contents had been strewn onto the sidewalk instead of being collected and carted away.

Among the debris was a cracked computer printer half buried in the snow, parts of what was once someone's sofa, broken jars with food still in them, ripped-open green garbage bags, and papers, papers everywhere. It was just the sort of place where one would expect to see a fat, greasy old rat come waddling out from one of the bags.

Of course the residents of that street are mostly students — seasonal occupants who leave town the minute final exams are over. These academic transients cannot be expected to nurture very much in the way of civic pride or any long-term sense of belonging to the street. Why should they care what the place looks like — they'll be gone in a few weeks anyway.

But what of the other people who live there — the full-time, year-round residents who have formed a permanent attachment to those storied old streets and whose homes now look out onto a veritable garbage dump? Some of those residents have recently been complaining that the noise is often intolerable — especially in the wee hours of the morning when masses of carefree students come staggering down the street after a night in one of the nearby bars, shouting and screeching right under their windows. These unfortunate people are helplessly watching the steady disintegration of their beloved neighbourhood.

For several generations now, the word 'ghetto' has been used no other way but affectionately when describing that once-dignified quartier, so closely associated with the highest standards in academics, athletics and harmless youthful hijinks. The grand old buildings are anything but shoddy and rental rates are so high that the vast majority of university students cannot even afford to live there. But judging from the unsightly state of its streets these days, it appears that the area's nickname has never been more appropriate — but not in the proud, traditional sense. On the contrary, it now looks more like the slum area more readily associated with the standard dictionary definition.